October 5, 2023 • 30 mins
A conversation with Houston Texans Offensive Coordinator Bobby Slowick on game planning and his personal coaching history. Plus, a visit with Voice of the Falcons, Wes Durham on the upcoming game in Atlanta
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Speaker 1 (00:05):
Hello Texans, and welcome to the podcast. Hit subscribe on
whatever you can possibly subscribe to regarding this podcast, because
I know you're picking it up in a variety of ways,
all of you listeners, and we appreciate you being a
part of this. Bobby Slowick up, first offensive coordinator for
your Texans, formerly at the forty nine ers with Dimiko
Ryans as a defensive quality control coach back in twenty seventeen.
(00:28):
That's right. They were grinding, working long hours doing that stuff.
And look at where they are now, trying to make
it three in a row as they take out the
Atlanta Falcons this weekend on the road. Slowick also the
son of Bob Slowik, who coached with the Packers among
other places. He's still an assistant in Canada. Yes, we
will get into that with the offensive coordinator. Why don't
(00:49):
we get right to it, and then we'll get to
West Durham, the voice of the Falcons. Very interesting guy
as well. But here's our conversation is John Harris and
I met up with Bobby Slowik and SiO. Welcome coach.
Speaker 2 (01:02):
Yeah, awesome to be here.
Speaker 1 (01:03):
Well, it's finally time that we had you here in
the studio first time. Yeah, the maiden voyage. After all
these months, here we go. All right, I want to
start here as you're having some success. Now, how much
of game planning is? Hey, I wonder what they're going
to try to do to us now and what can
we do about what they might do? It's a chess match, right,
how do you see it?
Speaker 2 (01:24):
Yeah, it's it's endless. That always happens, you know.
Speaker 3 (01:26):
I think the only week that really wasn't like that
was Baltimore because they're playing the guessing game. We're playing
the guessing game a little bit, so you kind of
mix and match. Okay, let's attack them, but also let's
just do what we do. And then after that it's
it's constant.
Speaker 2 (01:43):
You know.
Speaker 3 (01:43):
Now, what we find as an offense and as a
group is you start to find out what you're really
good at, you know, and really things you want to
do a lot of and really focus and hone in on.
And you know, eventually teams are going to start trying
to take that away. And that's why you have to
build offsets and you have to make sure that you
protect what you're good at with just enough of the
(02:03):
other things.
Speaker 4 (02:04):
Coach, there are two engineers at this table. So you
and I understand science very very well. So I asked
you this question, play calling more art or more science?
Speaker 3 (02:15):
Definitely both, Definitely both, I feel like, and you know,
I'm still young in it, to be fair, but from
my experiences so far, I'd say there's there's, without a doubt,
there's a science to how you construct the game plan
and how you want to approach using it, in particular
early on, and then I think there's a there's a
big art the later the game gets. And that's really
(02:36):
what I'm learning as we go, is you know, because
at that point you get into more adjustments, you get
into Okay, now this is what they're doing to this,
what do we have to change?
Speaker 2 (02:45):
What can we keep doing?
Speaker 3 (02:47):
How do we set something up in the second quarter
that we want to call on the fourth quarter? So
that part, I think is largely an art. Thankfully I
happened to be around one of the guys I thought was,
you know, one of the best in the NFL in
San Francisco that I learned a lot from.
Speaker 1 (03:00):
Ye and your quarterback. The more he can do, the
more you can do. Right, You've grown together sort of
over these last few weeks.
Speaker 2 (03:06):
There's there's no doubt.
Speaker 3 (03:08):
You know, I've said this multiple times, but coaching CJ
has been extremely fun, pleasurable.
Speaker 2 (03:13):
I mean, it's been awesome.
Speaker 3 (03:14):
There's there's no conversations we had that we don't immediately
get on the same page, whether we're you know, we
can be talking about life, but we could be talking
about film.
Speaker 2 (03:24):
He's watched all the film.
Speaker 3 (03:25):
We could talk about structures, what we want to do
going forward, why we maybe want to change something. They're
all very quick conversations. It also makes it easy on
the sideline, you know, anytime you have to make adjustments
or just talk through what he's seeing or why we
may want to go to a play and distribute the
ball somewhere. They're they're really fast. Not a lot of
convincing needed either way by me or him.
Speaker 2 (03:48):
Uh, it just makes it fun.
Speaker 1 (03:50):
Coach.
Speaker 4 (03:50):
Was there an AHA moment with CJ? Or was it
just gradual you kept seeing changes and improvements and growth
every single day or do you have this like, Okay, yeah,
this is the moment?
Speaker 5 (04:01):
Yeah? Both.
Speaker 3 (04:04):
Definitely, there's constant growth for all young players that come
in the NFL that always needs to take place, even
through the course of the rookie season and CJ is
still going through a lot of that. But I would
say during training camp. I can't remember the exact practice,
but there was a practice in the middle of training camp,
like short right before we practiced the Dolphins where we
(04:24):
had kind of been emphasizing when we get pressure, when
we're hot, when someone's heating us up with a blitz,
what's our reaction. How do we handle it if the
protection is just like they just got more than we do,
how do we handle that? And it was something that
he wasn't quite used to from Ohio State, just because
the scheme was a little different, and we go out
(04:45):
there and we had just talked about it in the
meeting room and just started emphasizing it, and it came
up in practice.
Speaker 2 (04:51):
It was like third and seven. Dimico called the blitz.
Speaker 3 (04:54):
We were hot, and I mean he decisively ripped our
hot answer, and it was it was like a downfield handoff,
you know, And that's where it was kind of like, Okay,
we can go build stuff around this because he knows
how to handle his issues and he can respond really
quick to it.
Speaker 1 (05:10):
Coach, everything feels so together right now with the players,
the coaching staff. Do you trace some of this back
to you and Dimico Ryans being defensive quality control coaches
back in what was it, twenty seventeen, because you guys
were on the defensive side as quality control guys and
for those who don't know, you're in a cubicle basically
grinding on film and doing whatever else.
Speaker 3 (05:31):
It is you do, right, Yeah, there's no doubt those
were some fun times. I don't know if I've met
a new QC that loved breakdowns like in putting information
as much as Demiko.
Speaker 2 (05:41):
I mean, he loved it.
Speaker 3 (05:42):
He just wanted to type in what run concepts were
being run and what we call him and stuff like that.
Those were it was actually two years, it was twenty
seventeen and twenty eighteen, and I mean it was awesome
to just talk football back then.
Speaker 2 (05:55):
You know, I had a little bit.
Speaker 3 (05:57):
Not nearly as much as needed to do it i'm
doing now, but I had a little bit of offensive background,
and obviously he had a whole lot of defensive background,
and we were both grown in the same scheme together
and just being able to talk about what an offense
could do to take advantage of things or what a
defense needed to do to offset in offensive tendencies or
I mean it was just endless back and force.
Speaker 2 (06:19):
It was a lot of fun.
Speaker 4 (06:21):
Coach have often said that you want to be a
good offensive coach, go coach defense or vice versa. How
did that experience a coaching defense maybe give you a
different look at okay, what they're trying to do versus
now you're on the offensive side. How much can you
harke him back to those years of okay, I think
I know what they want to do as opposed to
if you had been on one side of the ball
the entire time. How does it kind of made you
(06:41):
a better play caller, coach, coordinator, et cetera.
Speaker 2 (06:44):
Yeah, I think it's massive.
Speaker 3 (06:46):
Mike Shanahan is the one who told me that he
knew I wanted to be an offensive coach, and he
happened to be the head coach of Washington at the time,
and he put me on defense and told me like,
if you want to coach offense one day, you need
to know this. And that's why I started over or there,
and it took a long time to come back. But
the answers that you arrived to on offense is just
(07:06):
so much faster because you understand how a defense is structured.
Speaker 2 (07:10):
You understand how it's rules based.
Speaker 3 (07:14):
And how you can try to take advantage of rules
or maybe make them play a rule so that you
can expose a whole like it just speeds up the
process so much of understanding what you're trying to attack
and why you're trying to attack it.
Speaker 1 (07:27):
All right, what about Pro Football Focus? Because Johnny loves profile,
stop stop it. I'm not the biggest fan sometimes, but
it's got to help. And you have to see the
deficiencies in it as well. It's analytics, but it doesn't
tell the whole story. How do they help you become
a better coach?
Speaker 3 (07:46):
Yeah, I would say, and I thought this even when
I was there. Any any information is good information.
Speaker 2 (07:52):
It just depends on how you want to use it,
you know.
Speaker 3 (07:55):
And they put a lot of time and work and
dedication into what they do and why they do it
the way they do it. And I mean when I
was there, I find value and just like they looked
at the game a different way than I did as
a coach. You know, there are a lot of There
are a lot of little things maybe a coach would
say technique wise, fundamental wise, that someone doesn't do well
on a specific play or compromises the structure of a defense,
(08:19):
and they don't necessarily look at that. They just say
did someone positively or negatively impact the play, which kind
of when you remove yourself from the coaching lens, is
an interesting way and a valuable way of looking at it.
It's just different, you know. So I really learned a
lot when I was there, and I also learned a
whole lot about analytics and the amount of math and
(08:42):
the amount of I mean brains that go well beyond
the brains I have, that goes into a lot of
that stuff that, like I said, I think all the
information is valuable. Nothing's perfect ever will be perfect, you know,
but being able to understand when and why you want
to use it it definitely, even in coaching, helps.
Speaker 1 (09:02):
Coach to the degree that you can and would like to.
Speaker 4 (09:06):
Can you take us through the half back pass and
the thought process and how you got to that thought
process because pretty much the last two games you've been
rolling offensively, what you're calling, works within your scheme, all
that kind of stuff, and then all of a sudden,
here comes this half back pass.
Speaker 1 (09:20):
And I know Mark and I were talking about it
during the break of the game. We're like, we didn't
see that coming.
Speaker 4 (09:26):
You kind of take us through your thought process of
why you thought that was the right play and what
the timing and all that and how it kind of
came to be.
Speaker 2 (09:32):
Yeah, I mean anytime.
Speaker 3 (09:33):
Obviously, we haven't been quite as good in the red
zone as we want to be, so I mean we've
been getting better without a doubt each week, but we
still have some room to grow right there. And the
big thing is when you want to emphasize something, you
need ways to help expedite the process. So like something
where you can take advantage of people over playing runs.
(09:53):
And I think at that point we had run it
on that drive a good amount, especially to Motor.
Speaker 2 (10:00):
Then we knew during the week that structurally it was there.
I mean we had saw it on film. Motor has
an arm.
Speaker 3 (10:07):
He'd shown it in practice, you know, and we repped
it a couple of times and walked through he worked
exactly like the game did. Then we actually repped it
in practice and my man got a little excited and
airmailed it a little bit, you know, but he put
enough out there where you could you could just see
he knew how to spin it and we were confident
in the structure.
Speaker 2 (10:26):
We just had to make sure that they were willing
to play run.
Speaker 3 (10:28):
Yeah, and at that point we had been running it
on that drive.
Speaker 2 (10:32):
It was set up.
Speaker 3 (10:33):
We just felt confident that Dalton and Devin we're gonna
be able to go out and execute it.
Speaker 1 (10:38):
Your dad is still an assistant in Canada, right he is.
So what kind of conversations do you have now as
far as coaching goes. He's talking about, well, second down
is it is the big money down as opposed to
third down. There's an exchange rate with the CFL. What
kind of conversations are you guys having these days?
Speaker 3 (10:55):
There's a lot and a lot of them involved things
that were not allowed to do, you know, multiple motions.
Speaker 2 (11:01):
Yeah, right, they can.
Speaker 3 (11:02):
Motion everybody, which which would be awesome for us on offense,
but obviously we're limited in that regard.
Speaker 2 (11:09):
And they have an extra guy on the field.
Speaker 3 (11:10):
Like, there's a lot different, but it's still at the
end of the day, there's a lot of concepts that
carry over. There's a lot of things that you still
try to take advantage. It's still football, you know. So
he always about once or twice a week, He'll he'll
text me or call me and either tell me something
that happened to him in their game up in Calgary
or vice versa.
Speaker 2 (11:30):
It will be like, hey, you should do this. I
don't know how they stop it. You know, he loves
it and I love it. It's fun.
Speaker 1 (11:36):
I don't know how it is for you, coach. I'm
the same.
Speaker 4 (11:39):
I grew up with a dad of as a football coach.
And how long it's your conversations with your pops? How
long after Hey, how's the family? Do you get into Hey?
We saw this defensive look? Because for me and my dad,
it's like thirty seconds like, hey, pops, how you doing good?
Speaker 1 (11:52):
How you doing good? How are the kids good?
Speaker 5 (11:54):
Hey?
Speaker 1 (11:54):
Did you see what this team did?
Speaker 4 (11:56):
How long does it take when you tour on the
phone talking?
Speaker 3 (11:58):
Probably five probably he usually he'll finish off with house
of family, house kids, but he it's hello, what's what's on?
Speaker 2 (12:05):
And then his ball? Oh yeah, oh yeah?
Speaker 3 (12:07):
And then obviously the family and the children conversations last longer.
Speaker 2 (12:12):
Than the football commerce course, but it doesn't it doesn't
take long to get there.
Speaker 5 (12:15):
For sure.
Speaker 1 (12:16):
At some point in the off season, I want to
get into this long form, but give me something on
Michigan Tech. Playing at Michigan Tech, which is north of
everything that you could imagine, it's.
Speaker 3 (12:26):
A terrible, terrible place to go for a wide receiver,
but not not because of the offense or the school.
I mean it was it was awesome. I think at
the time I went there, I don't know if this
still is true. At the time I went there, it
got more snowfall than any college in the United States.
Speaker 2 (12:45):
I mean it was.
Speaker 3 (12:45):
I think it was like a three year run where
there was a six month period that they would mark
down from November to I want to say.
Speaker 2 (12:53):
Like May of one hundred snow you know, like.
Speaker 1 (12:57):
Every day make effect. You got it.
Speaker 3 (13:00):
It's on a peninsula and with the canal running right by,
I mean, it's just set up for snowfall.
Speaker 2 (13:05):
So it was cold. There was a lot of snow,
but I mean it was a lot of fun.
Speaker 3 (13:09):
I have a lot of good friends that I still
talk to to this day that I played with up there,
and you know that are doing well.
Speaker 1 (13:16):
All right, coach, thanks a lot for joining us. Good
luck this weekend.
Speaker 2 (13:19):
Thank you appreciate it.
Speaker 1 (13:20):
There's our conversation with Bobby Slowick. Offensive coordinator for your Texans. Now,
what about West Durham. I mentioned he would be on
the pod as well. He's been doing the Falcons games
for a while, did Georgia Tech before that or along
with that for a while as well, and he still
does a ton of acc stuff. In fact, he's calling
Miami Georgia Tech on Saturday night prior to the Falcons
(13:43):
playing the Texans on Sunday. And West is the son
of the great Woody Durham, the legendary voice of North
Carolina back in the day under Dean Smith and had
some tremendous years there called the games with Jordan and
all those great North Carolina players. And we get it
to some broadcasting stuff, acc stuff, but talk about the
Falcons most importantly, as that's next up for your Texans.
(14:06):
Let's get into it with Wes. Wes Durham, the legendary voice.
Can I call you that, Wes, the legendary voice of
the Atlanta Falcons.
Speaker 6 (14:13):
No, no, you cannot, because you're older than me and
you've been at it in the NFL. But you did
do the Cane, so you know you can say if
you need to there you go.
Speaker 1 (14:23):
Right, yeah, And that's an ACC team, and I know
you're big on the ACC we can get into all that,
but let's talk Falcons here because obviously good start and
the last couple of games not so good. What went
well in the first two that's not going well lately?
Wes wait, can you tell us?
Speaker 5 (14:39):
Well?
Speaker 6 (14:39):
I feel like talking to your audience. I'll to say
Bjhon Robinson and Bjon Robinson went well in weeks one
and two, and then Bjon Robinson went well in week
four when it in blay very well. I think that
this is a team that is a sending mark. But
I also was one of those guys that felt like,
you know what, if they get off to a relatively
good start, they've got a chance. But it's a long
(15:00):
road in the NFL, right there were gonna be bumps.
Atlanta's not a complete team by a long shot, but
they've got a lot more pieces than they had a
year ago, and significantly more pieces than they had two
years ago. For me, the inability to make plays offensively
right now has been the real crux of the issue
the last two weeks, and it's you know, and as
we all know in these discussions, it falls on the quarterback.
(15:22):
Ninety nine percent of the time. The reality of it
is sure, Desmond Ritters not played as well as he
would like in the last two games, but the offensive
line hasn't helped him. You know, there are other things
that have contributed to that. You've got guys who are
kind of working their way back into the lineup. You've
got a veteran guy left tackleing Jake Matthews, who starts
(15:42):
his one hundred and I think forty seventh game on Sunday.
I mean, he's just an institution at left tackle. But
you've got a rookie right beside him at left guard
and Matt berger on who they're excited about, but who
is obviously still getting kind of acclimated to what Sundays
are like as opposed to Saturday. And then the right side,
Lenstrom and McGarry the Garden tackle on the right side
(16:04):
have been pretty good. They've not been great yet. And
Dalman the center feels like a guy that who's won
the job and now has got to get better. So
to tell you the offensive line has been superior would
be a vast overstatement.
Speaker 5 (16:18):
They've been okay.
Speaker 6 (16:20):
Ritter has made some good throws, he's made some good decisions,
He's also made some head scratching throws and that is
exactly what I expected after eight career starts for Desmond Ritter,
and that's kind of where we are. Defensively, they are
much improved. Anyamada has added a lot to the defensive line.
He's helped Grady Jared immeasurably. Kalaias Campbell has coming here
(16:41):
and been a terrific presence. Jesse Bates has three interceptions.
In my opinion, he was the most important sign Atlanta
made in the offseason. You had to solidify your back
in It had been chaos back there for about three
or four years, and they did with Jesse Bates. And
you've got some good players at linebacker. You lost one
two weeks ago and Troy Anderson, who you're really counting on,
(17:02):
and now you turn to a guy who was on
and off your practice squad and on and off your
active roster in Nate Landman to kind of take that spot.
So you know, that's that's been the that's been the
worst injuries so far in the first four weeks that
Atlanta's had to overcome.
Speaker 1 (17:15):
West Durham joining us Voice of the Atlanta Falcons. What
about b Jon Robinson, What can you tell us of
what you've seen so far? We see the numbers. What
are you seeing in the player as you observe him
up close?
Speaker 5 (17:25):
Well, he's he's delivered everything. Mark.
Speaker 6 (17:28):
You take the guy at eight, and everybody here is
kind of like, well didn't you want Jalen Carter who
played at Georgia, And no.
Speaker 5 (17:33):
You needed this. This is a showstopper.
Speaker 6 (17:37):
I mean, he not only if you make a play
for him, the play will happen. But if you don't
make the play, the play still got a chance to
happen because of how good he is. And I feel
like I'm, you know, preaching to the choir a little
bit to people in Texas who saw him play in
Austin and go, well, yeah, that's who he was in Austin. Well,
this is who he's become at the in the at
(17:57):
the NFL level. I mean, he made Frankie Louva the
linebacker the Panthers looked like he was playing Pop warnerball
on opening week, I mean, and then he got Darnell
Savage of the safety from Green Bay, and then last
week he you know, he juked another guy from Jacksonville.
So look, he's look, he's leading him in rushing, he's
leading them in receiving. I mean, he's doing everything. He's
(18:21):
touched it a lot more than I thought he would.
And I will say that their best package when they
can get them both on the field, is this sledgehammer
Tyler Algier, who's set a rookie rushing record a year
ago of William Andrews. And they put Algier and Robinson
on the field together, Mark at the same time, they're
as good offensively as they've been in Arthur Smith's time here,
(18:43):
but they haven't been able to do that very much
the last couple of weeks because they've been facing deficits.
And I think Sunday, regardless if they're playing the Texans
or they were playing anybody else, they've got to start
well Sunday. The fact that they have only scored what
touchdown in the last two games, and quite frankly haven't
been very good in the first fifteen minutes is overbearing
at this point to this team.
Speaker 1 (19:04):
Well, so are you surprised that John new Smith has
more catches than Kyle Pitts At this point? We know
that Smith is good. We've seen him before tennis surf,
for example, but what about Pitts. What can you tell
me about those two tight ends? And especially Pitts.
Speaker 6 (19:16):
I think the clarity on Kyle pittsmark is is that
he's still coming back from what ended up being a
far more significant knee injury last year than anybody ever realized.
Speaker 5 (19:25):
Kyle has made some plays.
Speaker 6 (19:27):
He's made a terrific play in the Green Bay game
to set up a winning score, made a terrific play,
and the Carolina play in the Carolina game in Week one.
But to ask him to be what we all thought
he was going to be three years ago when he
came out of Florida and was picked so high at three,
maybe stretching it. Where his health is, I think is
(19:47):
something now that's that's coming out. Is it coming out
because he's not making plays? I think that's part of it.
I think it's also coming out because you know, he's
getting his confidence back.
Speaker 5 (19:57):
Now.
Speaker 6 (19:58):
They never said it was an AC but it must
have been somewhere in the close of an ACL range
for him to miss the back end of the schedule
and then he was, you know, to use the baseball term,
he was on a pitch country training camp and I
think they wanted to make sure, and I think he
needs to be confident, and I think he's getting there.
You know, does he have a breakout game on Sunday.
(20:20):
I'm always ready for it because I think he's the
kind of guy who can change a game. He is
a red zone nightmare. And when you take London and
you take Mike Collins and now but John Robinson involved
in it, Mark Atlanta's got a tremendous amount of weaponry
around Desmond Ritter that I think he's once he gets
over the barrier in confidence and cutting it loose, I
(20:40):
think that's where Atlanta maybe has the chance to take off.
Whether that's Sunday or not, I don't know. I think
it's a It's a tall task against against fifty one
in that white jersey on Sunday, because fifty one is
a playmaker too. He's he's as electric on defense as
anybody I've seen a long time come out of the college.
Speaker 1 (20:57):
Game West Durham joining us voice of the Falcon. All right,
We've seen Arthur Smith put together some great game plans
in Tennessee over the years, up close and personal, and
some of them with the odds against them, and they
come out with a victory, somehow, some way. They raved
about him for years as he worked his way up
through the organization. What can you tell me about what
(21:17):
it's like to work around Arthur Smith.
Speaker 6 (21:20):
He's one of the brightest people I've ever been around,
period in terms of just his acumen as a human being,
but his football recall and his football savvy in terms
of building game plans is really pretty impressive. He and
I have had limited conversations.
Speaker 5 (21:35):
Of course.
Speaker 6 (21:36):
He got the job in the pandemic, and you know,
we kind of were integrating back into, you know, working
together on some things.
Speaker 5 (21:42):
And in the role I have.
Speaker 6 (21:43):
He and I have brief conversations practically every week, but
they're not very long, but yet I always get something
out of him from what he's thinking about the ballgame,
and he'll tell you a lot in press conferences. You'll
notice that going through the week in preparation for this
he is a guy who talks honestly and candidly about
his football team at times, and talks about the competitive
(22:04):
nature of his team. I think the one thing I
do know that he likes about this team is the
competitive depth they've been able to bring to the table.
Now in year three of his administration with GM Terry Fonteau,
and I think it's pretty important. I think it's one
of those things that in all honesty, Mark has kind
of grown this team in the face of a pair
of seven to ten campaigns.
Speaker 5 (22:25):
If you will, they tend to play close games.
Speaker 6 (22:27):
You won't be surprised by that, because that's what they
did in Nashville when he was running the offense there.
They want to run it before they throw it. Nobody's
surprised by that. The multiple tight ends will be the
least biggest upset for you guys. I mean, you're going
to see two sometimes you'll see three, and he is
going to play percentage football most of the time. Now
(22:47):
he's gotten a little more aggressive, they've gotten the ball
more vertical at times. But that's something that in this
transition to Ritter is a full time starter, not just
the guy who was given the last four games last
year to kind of find out out. I think it's
one of the growing pains that this football team's enduring
right now. But I will say this, He's also brought
some really.
Speaker 5 (23:07):
Good coaches here.
Speaker 6 (23:07):
Jerry Gray and Ryan Nielson have done a terrific job
with fortifying the defense. And I think that maybe the
most important thing is Arthur Smith and Terry Fontineau had
a vision, a collaborative vision when they got here, and
now in year three you can start to see the
building of that with the football team as a whole.
Speaker 1 (23:24):
All right, Wes, let's talk about the ACC a little bit.
I want to shift gears here because this is so
much in your DNA. You do so much ACC broadcasting.
We know your father was the legendary announcer at North Carolina.
I can call him a legend. But tell me about
the level of surprise you have as to what's going
on right now in college athletics. The portal, the conference realignment, ANIL,
(23:50):
how it's all evolving, changing, and where does the ACC
go from here?
Speaker 6 (23:55):
You know, Mark, I wish I could give you any
kind of clarity on college athletics. All of this changed
during the pandemic. The portal thing was already occurring where
student athletes could have you know, freedom of movement as
I call it. We talked about freedom of movement in
basketball a few years ago and it was related to
(24:16):
you know Foules being called. Well, freedom of movement in
college athletics means you can sign up at one place
in one fall and be at another place the next fall,
and then you know, I'm going to try to stay
far off my soapbox here. The NCAA allowed name, image
and likeness to become a thing and allowed it to
be measured by the States and not by Congress, right,
(24:37):
And when that happened, that changed the dynamics of everything.
Now that's that's the big picture stuff. The ACC has
been impacted by the fact that there's been this money
grab in college athletics for conferences. It relates to television packages,
and the ACC signed a grant of rights deal in
twenty sixteen that last twenty years, and it also included
Notre Dame on what I call an IPO because they
(24:58):
play five football game a year and obviously they participate
in all the other sports sans hockey. For me, the
accason in good shape. It's not in great shape. The
Big ten in the Southeastern Conference of the two War
daddies if you will, of college athletics, because they've got
you know, nearly billion dollar television rights fees out there.
(25:19):
The Big twelve has made a lot of roads. And
I know, folks, and you're part of the world follow
the Big twelve, and they should because I think Brett
you Ormark's done a really nice job. They're television contracts
a lot shorter, but in the packaging, as we know
college athletics, I think we're standing on the I think
we're standing on the deck and waiting to get on
a boat of a new reality. And if that reality
(25:41):
is going to be dictated by the twelve team college
Football Playoff, then so be it. But I think that
the decisions that presidents and chancellors are going to have
to make it a lot of these institutions and major
college athletics are getting ready to be tricky ones because
they're going to be decisions you have to make today
and you're going to have to have the foresight of
the next twenty five to fifty years perhaps in your
pocket as well.
Speaker 1 (26:00):
On the field, West, who do you trust more? Miami,
Florida State, North Carolina? Where are we going to the ACC?
Who's the best contender?
Speaker 6 (26:08):
You know, we've been waiting since you did the Canes
a million years ago from Miami and Florida State to
play for an ACC championship, and it never happened, right,
I mean you remember that talk, Oh The reason they're
adding Miami is because it's gonna be Miami in Florida
State every year, and they've never played for the ACC
football title. And I was when we got back from
London early Monday morning yesterday. I spent some time watching
(26:31):
games and it finally dawned on me looking at schedules
and kind of comparing where teams are playing, that we're
going to see Miami in Florida State play in November
in the regular season. It's going to be an unbelievable
game because they're likely both be undefeated. But then we
have a chance three weeks later to see the same game.
And I think Miami and Florida State are the two
best teams in the league right now. Carolina is close.
(26:54):
I think even Clemson with two losses is still very
dangerous mark. But on the whole, I would not be
surprised at all if we have a one lost Miami
Florida State game against an undefeated Miami or Florida State
in December for the ACC title with the winner going to.
Speaker 5 (27:09):
The Final four.
Speaker 1 (27:10):
One more for you, Wes back to the Falcons sure
recovery from the London trip, how do you think it goes.
These are young men. They should be able to respond.
How are you feeling? How did it go? Other than
the game itself?
Speaker 6 (27:23):
Injury wise, I think they're okay, which is important, right.
You don't want to bring anybody back on that long
a trip and then have them spend all week in
rehab hoping that they might be able to pull the
trigger on Sunday. For me, they had a bout as
good a plan from a practice and reacclamation situation on
the back end of this, and I think, as you know,
(27:44):
this has become a lot more now, Hey Lee, Thursday,
come back after the game and play the next week,
and then push your by as far into the season
as you can get it.
Speaker 5 (27:53):
Atlanta.
Speaker 6 (27:54):
For the most part, knock on Wood was generally very
healthy out of the ballgame Sunday. I think Arthur Smith
had been over there when they went his first year
to play the Jets at Tottenham, and they did the
Thursday Sunday and they came back okay. He felt really
good when I saw him Saturday in the hotel about
whether they won or lost the game, that they had
a really good blueprint for what the back end would be.
(28:16):
They know how important these next two home games are
mark because, believe it or not, half their home games
are going to be gone after these next two weeks.
They played two at home to start, they went to Detroit,
London to play Jacksonville. Now they're back to play Houston
and Washington, and they've only got four home games left
the rest of the year, so they've got to maximize
(28:36):
home field because in all honesty, this is a team
that has now struggled on the road. Yesterday was or
Sunday rather was their ninth road loss in their last
ten games on the road. So they've got to they've
got to find a way to kind of shake that
a little bit if they're gonna try and crack what
is what is? You know, we all were sleeping on
the NFC South. I'll be the first to mint. I
(28:58):
said one team, one team only the division, and all
of a sudden, you know, Tampa, New Orleans, Atlanta have
fired out of there. Everybody was two and one, and
now the Buccaneers they've kind of pushed it forward. Believe
it or not, were Baker Mayfield kind of like they're
drinking Tom Brady juice down there again. So it's gonna
be interesting to see what happens in this division, bar
none of what happens on Sunday with the Texans.
Speaker 5 (29:20):
Here.
Speaker 1 (29:21):
Texans have four in a row against the NFC South
right now, it's weird in the schedule, but I'll have
some notes after this stretches over west. Yes, so much
for the time, great information, We appreciate.
Speaker 5 (29:30):
It, Mark anytime. Great to see you, look forward to
seeing you Sunday.
Speaker 1 (29:33):
There's our conversation with Wes Durham and that's it for
the podcast. Go to the other podcasts like The Deep Slant,
all the Texans All Access podcasts wherever you got this one,
and don't forget Texans Falcons Sunday at noon. It's live
on Sports Radio six ' ten, the Bowl one hundred
point three FM, the Texans App, the Odyssey app series XM,
all over the place as we bring it to you
(29:55):
live Texans going for three in a row. Thanks so
much for listening. Have a great day, Go Texis.
Hello Texans, and welcome to the podcast. Hit subscribe on
whatever you can possibly subscribe to regarding this podcast, because
I know you're picking it up in a variety of ways,
all of you listeners, and we appreciate you being a
part of this. Bobby Slowick up, first offensive coordinator for
your Texans, formerly at the forty nine ers with Dimiko
Ryans as a defensive quality control coach back in twenty seventeen.
(00:28):
That's right. They were grinding, working long hours doing that stuff.
And look at where they are now, trying to make
it three in a row as they take out the
Atlanta Falcons this weekend on the road. Slowick also the
son of Bob Slowik, who coached with the Packers among
other places. He's still an assistant in Canada. Yes, we
will get into that with the offensive coordinator. Why don't
(00:49):
we get right to it, and then we'll get to
West Durham, the voice of the Falcons. Very interesting guy
as well. But here's our conversation is John Harris and
I met up with Bobby Slowik and SiO. Welcome coach.
Speaker 2 (01:02):
Yeah, awesome to be here.
Speaker 1 (01:03):
Well, it's finally time that we had you here in
the studio first time. Yeah, the maiden voyage. After all
these months, here we go. All right, I want to
start here as you're having some success. Now, how much
of game planning is? Hey, I wonder what they're going
to try to do to us now and what can
we do about what they might do? It's a chess match, right,
how do you see it?
Speaker 2 (01:24):
Yeah, it's it's endless. That always happens, you know.
Speaker 3 (01:26):
I think the only week that really wasn't like that
was Baltimore because they're playing the guessing game. We're playing
the guessing game a little bit, so you kind of
mix and match. Okay, let's attack them, but also let's
just do what we do. And then after that it's
it's constant.
Speaker 2 (01:43):
You know.
Speaker 3 (01:43):
Now, what we find as an offense and as a
group is you start to find out what you're really
good at, you know, and really things you want to
do a lot of and really focus and hone in on.
And you know, eventually teams are going to start trying
to take that away. And that's why you have to
build offsets and you have to make sure that you
protect what you're good at with just enough of the
(02:03):
other things.
Speaker 4 (02:04):
Coach, there are two engineers at this table. So you
and I understand science very very well. So I asked
you this question, play calling more art or more science?
Speaker 3 (02:15):
Definitely both, Definitely both, I feel like, and you know,
I'm still young in it, to be fair, but from
my experiences so far, I'd say there's there's, without a doubt,
there's a science to how you construct the game plan
and how you want to approach using it, in particular
early on, and then I think there's a there's a
big art the later the game gets. And that's really
(02:36):
what I'm learning as we go, is you know, because
at that point you get into more adjustments, you get
into Okay, now this is what they're doing to this,
what do we have to change?
Speaker 2 (02:45):
What can we keep doing?
Speaker 3 (02:47):
How do we set something up in the second quarter
that we want to call on the fourth quarter? So
that part, I think is largely an art. Thankfully I
happened to be around one of the guys I thought was,
you know, one of the best in the NFL in
San Francisco that I learned a lot from.
Speaker 1 (03:00):
Ye and your quarterback. The more he can do, the
more you can do. Right, You've grown together sort of
over these last few weeks.
Speaker 2 (03:06):
There's there's no doubt.
Speaker 3 (03:08):
You know, I've said this multiple times, but coaching CJ
has been extremely fun, pleasurable.
Speaker 2 (03:13):
I mean, it's been awesome.
Speaker 3 (03:14):
There's there's no conversations we had that we don't immediately
get on the same page, whether we're you know, we
can be talking about life, but we could be talking
about film.
Speaker 2 (03:24):
He's watched all the film.
Speaker 3 (03:25):
We could talk about structures, what we want to do
going forward, why we maybe want to change something. They're
all very quick conversations. It also makes it easy on
the sideline, you know, anytime you have to make adjustments
or just talk through what he's seeing or why we
may want to go to a play and distribute the
ball somewhere. They're they're really fast. Not a lot of
convincing needed either way by me or him.
Speaker 2 (03:48):
Uh, it just makes it fun.
Speaker 1 (03:50):
Coach.
Speaker 4 (03:50):
Was there an AHA moment with CJ? Or was it
just gradual you kept seeing changes and improvements and growth
every single day or do you have this like, Okay, yeah,
this is the moment?
Speaker 5 (04:01):
Yeah? Both.
Speaker 3 (04:04):
Definitely, there's constant growth for all young players that come
in the NFL that always needs to take place, even
through the course of the rookie season and CJ is
still going through a lot of that. But I would
say during training camp. I can't remember the exact practice,
but there was a practice in the middle of training camp,
like short right before we practiced the Dolphins where we
(04:24):
had kind of been emphasizing when we get pressure, when
we're hot, when someone's heating us up with a blitz,
what's our reaction. How do we handle it if the
protection is just like they just got more than we do,
how do we handle that? And it was something that
he wasn't quite used to from Ohio State, just because
the scheme was a little different, and we go out
(04:45):
there and we had just talked about it in the
meeting room and just started emphasizing it, and it came
up in practice.
Speaker 2 (04:51):
It was like third and seven. Dimico called the blitz.
Speaker 3 (04:54):
We were hot, and I mean he decisively ripped our
hot answer, and it was it was like a downfield handoff,
you know, And that's where it was kind of like, Okay,
we can go build stuff around this because he knows
how to handle his issues and he can respond really
quick to it.
Speaker 1 (05:10):
Coach, everything feels so together right now with the players,
the coaching staff. Do you trace some of this back
to you and Dimico Ryans being defensive quality control coaches
back in what was it, twenty seventeen, because you guys
were on the defensive side as quality control guys and
for those who don't know, you're in a cubicle basically
grinding on film and doing whatever else.
Speaker 3 (05:31):
It is you do, right, Yeah, there's no doubt those
were some fun times. I don't know if I've met
a new QC that loved breakdowns like in putting information
as much as Demiko.
Speaker 2 (05:41):
I mean, he loved it.
Speaker 3 (05:42):
He just wanted to type in what run concepts were
being run and what we call him and stuff like that.
Those were it was actually two years, it was twenty
seventeen and twenty eighteen, and I mean it was awesome
to just talk football back then.
Speaker 2 (05:55):
You know, I had a little bit.
Speaker 3 (05:57):
Not nearly as much as needed to do it i'm
doing now, but I had a little bit of offensive background,
and obviously he had a whole lot of defensive background,
and we were both grown in the same scheme together
and just being able to talk about what an offense
could do to take advantage of things or what a
defense needed to do to offset in offensive tendencies or
I mean it was just endless back and force.
Speaker 2 (06:19):
It was a lot of fun.
Speaker 4 (06:21):
Coach have often said that you want to be a
good offensive coach, go coach defense or vice versa. How
did that experience a coaching defense maybe give you a
different look at okay, what they're trying to do versus
now you're on the offensive side. How much can you
harke him back to those years of okay, I think
I know what they want to do as opposed to
if you had been on one side of the ball
the entire time. How does it kind of made you
(06:41):
a better play caller, coach, coordinator, et cetera.
Speaker 2 (06:44):
Yeah, I think it's massive.
Speaker 3 (06:46):
Mike Shanahan is the one who told me that he
knew I wanted to be an offensive coach, and he
happened to be the head coach of Washington at the time,
and he put me on defense and told me like,
if you want to coach offense one day, you need
to know this. And that's why I started over or there,
and it took a long time to come back. But
the answers that you arrived to on offense is just
(07:06):
so much faster because you understand how a defense is structured.
Speaker 2 (07:10):
You understand how it's rules based.
Speaker 3 (07:14):
And how you can try to take advantage of rules
or maybe make them play a rule so that you
can expose a whole like it just speeds up the
process so much of understanding what you're trying to attack
and why you're trying to attack it.
Speaker 1 (07:27):
All right, what about Pro Football Focus? Because Johnny loves profile,
stop stop it. I'm not the biggest fan sometimes, but
it's got to help. And you have to see the
deficiencies in it as well. It's analytics, but it doesn't
tell the whole story. How do they help you become
a better coach?
Speaker 3 (07:46):
Yeah, I would say, and I thought this even when
I was there. Any any information is good information.
Speaker 2 (07:52):
It just depends on how you want to use it,
you know.
Speaker 3 (07:55):
And they put a lot of time and work and
dedication into what they do and why they do it
the way they do it. And I mean when I
was there, I find value and just like they looked
at the game a different way than I did as
a coach. You know, there are a lot of There
are a lot of little things maybe a coach would
say technique wise, fundamental wise, that someone doesn't do well
on a specific play or compromises the structure of a defense,
(08:19):
and they don't necessarily look at that. They just say
did someone positively or negatively impact the play, which kind
of when you remove yourself from the coaching lens, is
an interesting way and a valuable way of looking at it.
It's just different, you know. So I really learned a
lot when I was there, and I also learned a
whole lot about analytics and the amount of math and
(08:42):
the amount of I mean brains that go well beyond
the brains I have, that goes into a lot of
that stuff that, like I said, I think all the
information is valuable. Nothing's perfect ever will be perfect, you know,
but being able to understand when and why you want
to use it it definitely, even in coaching, helps.
Speaker 1 (09:02):
Coach to the degree that you can and would like to.
Speaker 4 (09:06):
Can you take us through the half back pass and
the thought process and how you got to that thought
process because pretty much the last two games you've been
rolling offensively, what you're calling, works within your scheme, all
that kind of stuff, and then all of a sudden,
here comes this half back pass.
Speaker 1 (09:20):
And I know Mark and I were talking about it
during the break of the game. We're like, we didn't
see that coming.
Speaker 4 (09:26):
You kind of take us through your thought process of
why you thought that was the right play and what
the timing and all that and how it kind of
came to be.
Speaker 2 (09:32):
Yeah, I mean anytime.
Speaker 3 (09:33):
Obviously, we haven't been quite as good in the red
zone as we want to be, so I mean we've
been getting better without a doubt each week, but we
still have some room to grow right there. And the
big thing is when you want to emphasize something, you
need ways to help expedite the process. So like something
where you can take advantage of people over playing runs.
(09:53):
And I think at that point we had run it
on that drive a good amount, especially to Motor.
Speaker 2 (10:00):
Then we knew during the week that structurally it was there.
I mean we had saw it on film. Motor has
an arm.
Speaker 3 (10:07):
He'd shown it in practice, you know, and we repped
it a couple of times and walked through he worked
exactly like the game did. Then we actually repped it
in practice and my man got a little excited and
airmailed it a little bit, you know, but he put
enough out there where you could you could just see
he knew how to spin it and we were confident
in the structure.
Speaker 2 (10:26):
We just had to make sure that they were willing
to play run.
Speaker 3 (10:28):
Yeah, and at that point we had been running it
on that drive.
Speaker 2 (10:32):
It was set up.
Speaker 3 (10:33):
We just felt confident that Dalton and Devin we're gonna
be able to go out and execute it.
Speaker 1 (10:38):
Your dad is still an assistant in Canada, right he is.
So what kind of conversations do you have now as
far as coaching goes. He's talking about, well, second down
is it is the big money down as opposed to
third down. There's an exchange rate with the CFL. What
kind of conversations are you guys having these days?
Speaker 3 (10:55):
There's a lot and a lot of them involved things
that were not allowed to do, you know, multiple motions.
Speaker 2 (11:01):
Yeah, right, they can.
Speaker 3 (11:02):
Motion everybody, which which would be awesome for us on offense,
but obviously we're limited in that regard.
Speaker 2 (11:09):
And they have an extra guy on the field.
Speaker 3 (11:10):
Like, there's a lot different, but it's still at the
end of the day, there's a lot of concepts that
carry over. There's a lot of things that you still
try to take advantage. It's still football, you know. So
he always about once or twice a week, He'll he'll
text me or call me and either tell me something
that happened to him in their game up in Calgary
or vice versa.
Speaker 2 (11:30):
It will be like, hey, you should do this. I
don't know how they stop it. You know, he loves
it and I love it. It's fun.
Speaker 1 (11:36):
I don't know how it is for you, coach. I'm
the same.
Speaker 4 (11:39):
I grew up with a dad of as a football coach.
And how long it's your conversations with your pops? How
long after Hey, how's the family? Do you get into Hey?
We saw this defensive look? Because for me and my dad,
it's like thirty seconds like, hey, pops, how you doing good?
Speaker 1 (11:52):
How you doing good? How are the kids good?
Speaker 5 (11:54):
Hey?
Speaker 1 (11:54):
Did you see what this team did?
Speaker 4 (11:56):
How long does it take when you tour on the
phone talking?
Speaker 3 (11:58):
Probably five probably he usually he'll finish off with house
of family, house kids, but he it's hello, what's what's on?
Speaker 2 (12:05):
And then his ball? Oh yeah, oh yeah?
Speaker 3 (12:07):
And then obviously the family and the children conversations last longer.
Speaker 2 (12:12):
Than the football commerce course, but it doesn't it doesn't
take long to get there.
Speaker 5 (12:15):
For sure.
Speaker 1 (12:16):
At some point in the off season, I want to
get into this long form, but give me something on
Michigan Tech. Playing at Michigan Tech, which is north of
everything that you could imagine, it's.
Speaker 3 (12:26):
A terrible, terrible place to go for a wide receiver,
but not not because of the offense or the school.
I mean it was it was awesome. I think at
the time I went there, I don't know if this
still is true. At the time I went there, it
got more snowfall than any college in the United States.
Speaker 2 (12:45):
I mean it was.
Speaker 3 (12:45):
I think it was like a three year run where
there was a six month period that they would mark
down from November to I want to say.
Speaker 2 (12:53):
Like May of one hundred snow you know, like.
Speaker 1 (12:57):
Every day make effect. You got it.
Speaker 3 (13:00):
It's on a peninsula and with the canal running right by,
I mean, it's just set up for snowfall.
Speaker 2 (13:05):
So it was cold. There was a lot of snow,
but I mean it was a lot of fun.
Speaker 3 (13:09):
I have a lot of good friends that I still
talk to to this day that I played with up there,
and you know that are doing well.
Speaker 1 (13:16):
All right, coach, thanks a lot for joining us. Good
luck this weekend.
Speaker 2 (13:19):
Thank you appreciate it.
Speaker 1 (13:20):
There's our conversation with Bobby Slowick. Offensive coordinator for your Texans. Now,
what about West Durham. I mentioned he would be on
the pod as well. He's been doing the Falcons games
for a while, did Georgia Tech before that or along
with that for a while as well, and he still
does a ton of acc stuff. In fact, he's calling
Miami Georgia Tech on Saturday night prior to the Falcons
(13:43):
playing the Texans on Sunday. And West is the son
of the great Woody Durham, the legendary voice of North
Carolina back in the day under Dean Smith and had
some tremendous years there called the games with Jordan and
all those great North Carolina players. And we get it
to some broadcasting stuff, acc stuff, but talk about the
Falcons most importantly, as that's next up for your Texans.
(14:06):
Let's get into it with Wes. Wes Durham, the legendary voice.
Can I call you that, Wes, the legendary voice of
the Atlanta Falcons.
Speaker 6 (14:13):
No, no, you cannot, because you're older than me and
you've been at it in the NFL. But you did
do the Cane, so you know you can say if
you need to there you go.
Speaker 1 (14:23):
Right, yeah, And that's an ACC team, and I know
you're big on the ACC we can get into all that,
but let's talk Falcons here because obviously good start and
the last couple of games not so good. What went
well in the first two that's not going well lately?
Wes wait, can you tell us?
Speaker 5 (14:39):
Well?
Speaker 6 (14:39):
I feel like talking to your audience. I'll to say
Bjhon Robinson and Bjon Robinson went well in weeks one
and two, and then Bjon Robinson went well in week
four when it in blay very well. I think that
this is a team that is a sending mark. But
I also was one of those guys that felt like,
you know what, if they get off to a relatively
good start, they've got a chance. But it's a long
(15:00):
road in the NFL, right there were gonna be bumps.
Atlanta's not a complete team by a long shot, but
they've got a lot more pieces than they had a
year ago, and significantly more pieces than they had two
years ago. For me, the inability to make plays offensively
right now has been the real crux of the issue
the last two weeks, and it's you know, and as
we all know in these discussions, it falls on the quarterback.
(15:22):
Ninety nine percent of the time. The reality of it
is sure, Desmond Ritters not played as well as he
would like in the last two games, but the offensive
line hasn't helped him. You know, there are other things
that have contributed to that. You've got guys who are
kind of working their way back into the lineup. You've
got a veteran guy left tackleing Jake Matthews, who starts
(15:42):
his one hundred and I think forty seventh game on Sunday.
I mean, he's just an institution at left tackle. But
you've got a rookie right beside him at left guard
and Matt berger on who they're excited about, but who
is obviously still getting kind of acclimated to what Sundays
are like as opposed to Saturday. And then the right side,
Lenstrom and McGarry the Garden tackle on the right side
(16:04):
have been pretty good. They've not been great yet. And
Dalman the center feels like a guy that who's won
the job and now has got to get better. So
to tell you the offensive line has been superior would
be a vast overstatement.
Speaker 5 (16:18):
They've been okay.
Speaker 6 (16:20):
Ritter has made some good throws, he's made some good decisions,
He's also made some head scratching throws and that is
exactly what I expected after eight career starts for Desmond Ritter,
and that's kind of where we are. Defensively, they are
much improved. Anyamada has added a lot to the defensive line.
He's helped Grady Jared immeasurably. Kalaias Campbell has coming here
(16:41):
and been a terrific presence. Jesse Bates has three interceptions.
In my opinion, he was the most important sign Atlanta
made in the offseason. You had to solidify your back
in It had been chaos back there for about three
or four years, and they did with Jesse Bates. And
you've got some good players at linebacker. You lost one
two weeks ago and Troy Anderson, who you're really counting on,
(17:02):
and now you turn to a guy who was on
and off your practice squad and on and off your
active roster in Nate Landman to kind of take that spot.
So you know, that's that's been the that's been the
worst injuries so far in the first four weeks that
Atlanta's had to overcome.
Speaker 1 (17:15):
West Durham joining us Voice of the Atlanta Falcons. What
about b Jon Robinson, What can you tell us of
what you've seen so far? We see the numbers. What
are you seeing in the player as you observe him
up close?
Speaker 5 (17:25):
Well, he's he's delivered everything. Mark.
Speaker 6 (17:28):
You take the guy at eight, and everybody here is
kind of like, well didn't you want Jalen Carter who
played at Georgia, And no.
Speaker 5 (17:33):
You needed this. This is a showstopper.
Speaker 6 (17:37):
I mean, he not only if you make a play
for him, the play will happen. But if you don't
make the play, the play still got a chance to
happen because of how good he is. And I feel
like I'm, you know, preaching to the choir a little
bit to people in Texas who saw him play in
Austin and go, well, yeah, that's who he was in Austin. Well,
this is who he's become at the in the at
(17:57):
the NFL level. I mean, he made Frankie Louva the
linebacker the Panthers looked like he was playing Pop warnerball
on opening week, I mean, and then he got Darnell
Savage of the safety from Green Bay, and then last
week he you know, he juked another guy from Jacksonville.
So look, he's look, he's leading him in rushing, he's
leading them in receiving. I mean, he's doing everything. He's
(18:21):
touched it a lot more than I thought he would.
And I will say that their best package when they
can get them both on the field, is this sledgehammer
Tyler Algier, who's set a rookie rushing record a year
ago of William Andrews. And they put Algier and Robinson
on the field together, Mark at the same time, they're
as good offensively as they've been in Arthur Smith's time here,
(18:43):
but they haven't been able to do that very much
the last couple of weeks because they've been facing deficits.
And I think Sunday, regardless if they're playing the Texans
or they were playing anybody else, they've got to start
well Sunday. The fact that they have only scored what
touchdown in the last two games, and quite frankly haven't
been very good in the first fifteen minutes is overbearing
at this point to this team.
Speaker 1 (19:04):
Well, so are you surprised that John new Smith has
more catches than Kyle Pitts At this point? We know
that Smith is good. We've seen him before tennis surf,
for example, but what about Pitts. What can you tell
me about those two tight ends? And especially Pitts.
Speaker 6 (19:16):
I think the clarity on Kyle pittsmark is is that
he's still coming back from what ended up being a
far more significant knee injury last year than anybody ever realized.
Speaker 5 (19:25):
Kyle has made some plays.
Speaker 6 (19:27):
He's made a terrific play in the Green Bay game
to set up a winning score, made a terrific play,
and the Carolina play in the Carolina game in Week one.
But to ask him to be what we all thought
he was going to be three years ago when he
came out of Florida and was picked so high at three,
maybe stretching it. Where his health is, I think is
(19:47):
something now that's that's coming out. Is it coming out
because he's not making plays? I think that's part of it.
I think it's also coming out because you know, he's
getting his confidence back.
Speaker 5 (19:57):
Now.
Speaker 6 (19:58):
They never said it was an AC but it must
have been somewhere in the close of an ACL range
for him to miss the back end of the schedule
and then he was, you know, to use the baseball term,
he was on a pitch country training camp and I
think they wanted to make sure, and I think he
needs to be confident, and I think he's getting there.
You know, does he have a breakout game on Sunday.
(20:20):
I'm always ready for it because I think he's the
kind of guy who can change a game. He is
a red zone nightmare. And when you take London and
you take Mike Collins and now but John Robinson involved
in it, Mark Atlanta's got a tremendous amount of weaponry
around Desmond Ritter that I think he's once he gets
over the barrier in confidence and cutting it loose, I
(20:40):
think that's where Atlanta maybe has the chance to take off.
Whether that's Sunday or not, I don't know. I think
it's a It's a tall task against against fifty one
in that white jersey on Sunday, because fifty one is
a playmaker too. He's he's as electric on defense as
anybody I've seen a long time come out of the college.
Speaker 1 (20:57):
Game West Durham joining us voice of the Falcon. All right,
We've seen Arthur Smith put together some great game plans
in Tennessee over the years, up close and personal, and
some of them with the odds against them, and they
come out with a victory, somehow, some way. They raved
about him for years as he worked his way up
through the organization. What can you tell me about what
(21:17):
it's like to work around Arthur Smith.
Speaker 6 (21:20):
He's one of the brightest people I've ever been around,
period in terms of just his acumen as a human being,
but his football recall and his football savvy in terms
of building game plans is really pretty impressive. He and
I have had limited conversations.
Speaker 5 (21:35):
Of course.
Speaker 6 (21:36):
He got the job in the pandemic, and you know,
we kind of were integrating back into, you know, working
together on some things.
Speaker 5 (21:42):
And in the role I have.
Speaker 6 (21:43):
He and I have brief conversations practically every week, but
they're not very long, but yet I always get something
out of him from what he's thinking about the ballgame,
and he'll tell you a lot in press conferences. You'll
notice that going through the week in preparation for this
he is a guy who talks honestly and candidly about
his football team at times, and talks about the competitive
(22:04):
nature of his team. I think the one thing I
do know that he likes about this team is the
competitive depth they've been able to bring to the table.
Now in year three of his administration with GM Terry Fonteau,
and I think it's pretty important. I think it's one
of those things that in all honesty, Mark has kind
of grown this team in the face of a pair
of seven to ten campaigns.
Speaker 5 (22:25):
If you will, they tend to play close games.
Speaker 6 (22:27):
You won't be surprised by that, because that's what they
did in Nashville when he was running the offense there.
They want to run it before they throw it. Nobody's
surprised by that. The multiple tight ends will be the
least biggest upset for you guys. I mean, you're going
to see two sometimes you'll see three, and he is
going to play percentage football most of the time. Now
(22:47):
he's gotten a little more aggressive, they've gotten the ball
more vertical at times. But that's something that in this
transition to Ritter is a full time starter, not just
the guy who was given the last four games last
year to kind of find out out. I think it's
one of the growing pains that this football team's enduring
right now. But I will say this, He's also brought
some really.
Speaker 5 (23:07):
Good coaches here.
Speaker 6 (23:07):
Jerry Gray and Ryan Nielson have done a terrific job
with fortifying the defense. And I think that maybe the
most important thing is Arthur Smith and Terry Fontineau had
a vision, a collaborative vision when they got here, and
now in year three you can start to see the
building of that with the football team as a whole.
Speaker 1 (23:24):
All right, Wes, let's talk about the ACC a little bit.
I want to shift gears here because this is so
much in your DNA. You do so much ACC broadcasting.
We know your father was the legendary announcer at North Carolina.
I can call him a legend. But tell me about
the level of surprise you have as to what's going
on right now in college athletics. The portal, the conference realignment, ANIL,
(23:50):
how it's all evolving, changing, and where does the ACC
go from here?
Speaker 6 (23:55):
You know, Mark, I wish I could give you any
kind of clarity on college athletics. All of this changed
during the pandemic. The portal thing was already occurring where
student athletes could have you know, freedom of movement as
I call it. We talked about freedom of movement in
basketball a few years ago and it was related to
(24:16):
you know Foules being called. Well, freedom of movement in
college athletics means you can sign up at one place
in one fall and be at another place the next fall,
and then you know, I'm going to try to stay
far off my soapbox here. The NCAA allowed name, image
and likeness to become a thing and allowed it to
be measured by the States and not by Congress, right,
(24:37):
And when that happened, that changed the dynamics of everything.
Now that's that's the big picture stuff. The ACC has
been impacted by the fact that there's been this money
grab in college athletics for conferences. It relates to television packages,
and the ACC signed a grant of rights deal in
twenty sixteen that last twenty years, and it also included
Notre Dame on what I call an IPO because they
(24:58):
play five football game a year and obviously they participate
in all the other sports sans hockey. For me, the
accason in good shape. It's not in great shape. The
Big ten in the Southeastern Conference of the two War
daddies if you will, of college athletics, because they've got
you know, nearly billion dollar television rights fees out there.
(25:19):
The Big twelve has made a lot of roads. And
I know, folks, and you're part of the world follow
the Big twelve, and they should because I think Brett
you Ormark's done a really nice job. They're television contracts
a lot shorter, but in the packaging, as we know
college athletics, I think we're standing on the I think
we're standing on the deck and waiting to get on
a boat of a new reality. And if that reality
(25:41):
is going to be dictated by the twelve team college
Football Playoff, then so be it. But I think that
the decisions that presidents and chancellors are going to have
to make it a lot of these institutions and major
college athletics are getting ready to be tricky ones because
they're going to be decisions you have to make today
and you're going to have to have the foresight of
the next twenty five to fifty years perhaps in your
pocket as well.
Speaker 1 (26:00):
On the field, West, who do you trust more? Miami,
Florida State, North Carolina? Where are we going to the ACC?
Who's the best contender?
Speaker 6 (26:08):
You know, we've been waiting since you did the Canes
a million years ago from Miami and Florida State to
play for an ACC championship, and it never happened, right,
I mean you remember that talk, Oh The reason they're
adding Miami is because it's gonna be Miami in Florida
State every year, and they've never played for the ACC
football title. And I was when we got back from
London early Monday morning yesterday. I spent some time watching
(26:31):
games and it finally dawned on me looking at schedules
and kind of comparing where teams are playing, that we're
going to see Miami in Florida State play in November
in the regular season. It's going to be an unbelievable
game because they're likely both be undefeated. But then we
have a chance three weeks later to see the same game.
And I think Miami and Florida State are the two
best teams in the league right now. Carolina is close.
(26:54):
I think even Clemson with two losses is still very
dangerous mark. But on the whole, I would not be
surprised at all if we have a one lost Miami
Florida State game against an undefeated Miami or Florida State
in December for the ACC title with the winner going to.
Speaker 5 (27:09):
The Final four.
Speaker 1 (27:10):
One more for you, Wes back to the Falcons sure
recovery from the London trip, how do you think it goes.
These are young men. They should be able to respond.
How are you feeling? How did it go? Other than
the game itself?
Speaker 6 (27:23):
Injury wise, I think they're okay, which is important, right.
You don't want to bring anybody back on that long
a trip and then have them spend all week in
rehab hoping that they might be able to pull the
trigger on Sunday. For me, they had a bout as
good a plan from a practice and reacclamation situation on
the back end of this, and I think, as you know,
(27:44):
this has become a lot more now, Hey Lee, Thursday,
come back after the game and play the next week,
and then push your by as far into the season
as you can get it.
Speaker 5 (27:53):
Atlanta.
Speaker 6 (27:54):
For the most part, knock on Wood was generally very
healthy out of the ballgame Sunday. I think Arthur Smith
had been over there when they went his first year
to play the Jets at Tottenham, and they did the
Thursday Sunday and they came back okay. He felt really
good when I saw him Saturday in the hotel about
whether they won or lost the game, that they had
a really good blueprint for what the back end would be.
(28:16):
They know how important these next two home games are
mark because, believe it or not, half their home games
are going to be gone after these next two weeks.
They played two at home to start, they went to Detroit,
London to play Jacksonville. Now they're back to play Houston
and Washington, and they've only got four home games left
the rest of the year, so they've got to maximize
(28:36):
home field because in all honesty, this is a team
that has now struggled on the road. Yesterday was or
Sunday rather was their ninth road loss in their last
ten games on the road. So they've got to they've
got to find a way to kind of shake that
a little bit if they're gonna try and crack what
is what is? You know, we all were sleeping on
the NFC South. I'll be the first to mint. I
(28:58):
said one team, one team only the division, and all
of a sudden, you know, Tampa, New Orleans, Atlanta have
fired out of there. Everybody was two and one, and
now the Buccaneers they've kind of pushed it forward. Believe
it or not, were Baker Mayfield kind of like they're
drinking Tom Brady juice down there again. So it's gonna
be interesting to see what happens in this division, bar
none of what happens on Sunday with the Texans.
Speaker 5 (29:20):
Here.
Speaker 1 (29:21):
Texans have four in a row against the NFC South
right now, it's weird in the schedule, but I'll have
some notes after this stretches over west. Yes, so much
for the time, great information, We appreciate.
Speaker 5 (29:30):
It, Mark anytime. Great to see you, look forward to
seeing you Sunday.
Speaker 1 (29:33):
There's our conversation with Wes Durham and that's it for
the podcast. Go to the other podcasts like The Deep Slant,
all the Texans All Access podcasts wherever you got this one,
and don't forget Texans Falcons Sunday at noon. It's live
on Sports Radio six ' ten, the Bowl one hundred
point three FM, the Texans App, the Odyssey app series XM,
all over the place as we bring it to you
(29:55):
live Texans going for three in a row. Thanks so
much for listening. Have a great day, Go Texis.
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